Farming and Food

During our stay in the village, we had a few opportunities to farm. We got to harvest chickpeas and peanuts. People in the village predominately eat food that they have grown themselves, so there farming is for subsistence.

A chickpea field after we had harvested and bunched the chickpeas

Chickpeas

A peanut field after we had harvested and bunched the peanuts

The food that they served us was also food that they had grown themselves. You could tell that the food was fresh, especially when eating the various assortments of greens. We often ate snacks and tea at many houses throughout the day, and common snacks consisted on peanuts and different versions of fried chickpeas. Main meals usually included a big bowl of rice and various curries. The curries are fairly oily and do not have much of a sauce with them. Even the greens and vegetables have a lot of oil. They served us meat, although in normal day to day they do not eat much meat. I considered the Burmese food in the villages to be spiced, but not spicy. Also, a lot of dishes contain fish paste. A common breakfast, which is delicious, is Mohinga which is a fish noodle soup usually topped with fried onions, lime, and crushed dried chilis.

An assortment of Burmese snacks, including tea leaf salad, peanuts, and fried chickpeas

A Burmese meal with various curries and rice

A common Burmese snack is tea leaf salad. It is made with fermented tea leafs, peanuts, and dried shrimps. In the villages, we also had tanye, a palm wine. The palm wine has a mild, sweet taste and goes bad quickly. You have only a few days to drink it once it has been extracted from the tree.